And The Show Goes On

June 26, 2006

We have had a fabulous, if tiring, weekend. Friday was our big show, Saturday night held two different parties, and Sunday was a relaxing family day.

Our show was a fifties style variety show called, “Rock Around the Clock.” The kids sang and danced and did a few skits. It was very entertaining. The club was packed, the kids were stoked, and the audience demanded an encore. We performed Bill Hailey’s “Rock Around the Clock”, Hank Williams’ “Kaw-Liga”, and we even had an appearance by Elvis Presley who sang “Hound Dog”. The pre-schoolers sang “Down by the Bay” and the after school ballet class performed a piece from “The Nutcracker”. All of the musical pieces were interspersed with skits taken from Free to be You and Me. We also had a version of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?”

Carrie directed and choreographed the whole thing. I taught the kids the songs and took care of the technical details. I also acted as the emcee. Amy prepared most of the art work, while Ellen (the club manager) prepared sets and helped with costumes. We had an area of the club set up as a museum of work that the kids had done throughout the year as well. It was an incredible collaborative effort. Everybody was a bit nervous. Now it is over and we can breathe a collective sigh of relief…until next year that is.










Needless to say Friday was a late night. Zachary was up promptly at 6:30 the next morning though. It was my turn to get up. We spent a sluggish morning, finally managing to get outside after Momma got up. Saturday night was a big party for the ladies at the Sahel (Sadiola) Club. The woman who has been here the longest (eight years) is leaving so they had a big to do for her. Meanwhile, in Yatela, there was a going away party for a fellow named Geoff, so many of the men headed there for the evening. Zachary stayed with Mohammed. When I arrived home at 2:15, Carrie was still out. This is particularly funny considering that Sunday was her day to get up with Z and he got up promptly at…that’s right…6:30! Needless to say, the day was spent resting and recuperating; breakfast at the club, swimming in the afternoon, dinner at the club, then home for bed.

In eleven days we will be in a hotel in Bamako, ready to fly home. We can hardly wait. This week we have arranged for a tour of the pit with the students. Saturday our friend David from Kayes will come out for the weekend. In the meantime we will bide our time and try not to get on each other’s nerves.
MJR

Bad Weather and Good News

June 14, 2006

What a crazy week!

My new students are way behind everyone else in my class. Instead of two math groups, I now have four, same with reading. I have been working my tail off this week trying to restructure and reassess; all of this and only three weeks to go until I’m home.

To compound things, we have our end of the year variety show coming up. It was made clear to us several months ago that the village expected an end of the year program. Last year they did this elaborate play with killer costumes and sets. This year we are doing “Rock Around The Clock: A Fifties Variety Show.” We have several musical numbers complete with dancing. There are also some short skits taken from “Free To Be You and Me.” It should be entertaining, but right now it’s a lot of work.

We went to a great party last weekend. Reg had a big braai at his place. After dinner we were sitting around sweating when the wind picked up. Within minutes, the wind was howling and the rain was pouring out of the sky. In the midst of it, Steve’s phone rang and he rushed off to the airstrip.

It turns out that one truck had rear-ended another. These were big semis filled with gravel. One of the drivers suffered some injuries so they called a plane to medevac him out. Unfortunately, the plane tried to land during the storm and got blown off the runway. No one was hurt, but the plane was totaled; crushed landing gear, bent props, the whole nine yards. I am hoping to get some pictures.

We have since had a few more of those storms. The Baobab camp had some of their roofs blow off. The wind is amazing. It picks up quickly and just tears through everything. The rain falls in great buckets accompanied by thunder and lightning. Within an hour it goes away, leaving downed trees, broken windows, and puddles the size of Lake Michigan.

We have been going up to the club during the last two hours of school everyday this week to practice our show. Today our trip was thwarted by the rain. To walk outside is to become instantly soaked through.

The good news is that we have managed to find a new internet provider. While we have to pay a subscriber fee every month, we are now able to use Skype. This is a service that allows us to use the internet as a telephone. We can even call landlines and cell phones through the system and save major cash. The reduction in our cell phone bill will definitely offset the price of the service, and we can talk to folks we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to. It rocks!

The best news is that our friend Anna has been hired as the new teacher here. Carrie and she have been friends forever. Now she is moving here, to the mine, to be our colleague. It should make next year even better than this one.
MJR

Gotta Go, Gotta See

June 9, 2006

So much is happening here. I’ll try to keep it all straight.

We have found a kindred spirit in Wimpie. He is always eager to try something new. We suggest ideas and he usually goes for them. On my birthday in May we loaded up his rig at seven in the morning and headed off to climb a rock. It took us about forty-five minutes over rough roads to get to the starting place. Once there we parked the car at the base of an escarpment and started climbing.



It was a fairly easy scramble over the rocks and through the weeds. In less then an hour we were at the top, gazing at the surrounding countryside. Our reason for choosing this spot was a rock; a big rock, a roadrunner rock. It hangs precariously balanced on the edge of the escarpment. It appears as if a strong push would knock it over.




We hung out at the top, took some pictures, climbed down and went home. Upon our return we were sweating profusely so we jumped in the pool for a swim before our regular nap.

A week later we headed out to the quarry. This was a midday trip. We loaded up food and beverages and headed off to Yatela, instructions in hand.

Yatela is a smaller mine run by the same company as the Sadiola mine. It is about a forty minute drive from our house. Nestled right in the middle of the mine, surrounded by berms, is a big hole full of water. At one time they may have quarried rock out of it for some reason or another, although no two people ever give the same story. Today it is stocked with fish and lies waiting behind a locked gate for folks to come along and enjoy it.

We got a little turned around trying to find the place and ended up taking a nice tour of the settling piles. The Yatela mine, as it turns out, uses a different system for leaching the gold out of the rock. They dig a hole and load the dirt onto a conveyor belt. This belt runs a tremendous distance to a big clearing. Here there are large plastic pads where the earth is deposited. When the mountain of dirt reaches the desired height, they spray it with a cyanide mixture. This mixture percolates through the soil, capturing the gold as it goes. When it gets to the mat it runs down to a sluiceway that carries it to the plant. There the gold is separated from the cyanide, poured into gold bars and shipped. The mountains remain where they stand for eternity.

Anyway, back to the quarry. There’s a large braai area and a beautiful pool of water. We stayed for most of the day; swimming, eating, and chatting. Hanging out there was like being transported somewhere else for a whole day. We went back again the following weekend, this time without Wimpie. In his place were two families.



One of the families has a daughter slightly younger than Zachary as well as a newborn. The other has two girls, one in Carrie’s class and one in mine. In class my student is a chatterbox. When I see her on the weekends, however, she won’t even say boo. It must be odd to bump into your teacher everywhere you go.

Speaking of class; the school increased by three students this week. Three girls from New Guinea arrived last week, starting school on Monday. Needless to say it has been a long week, trying to assess their skills, work on our year-end program, and keep the other students motivated. I remember now, this is more what a real classroom is like. Did it have to happen in the last month of school?
MJR

A Day In The Life

June 9, 2006

I am settled here.

Things move, seasons change, and life goes on. Who would have believed when I showed up a here a year ago that I would take such things for granted?

I heard the frogs tonight. They are out in full force. We had our first good rain last night; thunder and lightening and buckets of water pouring from the sky. This morning the flies were out! Everything is bursting forth from its hibernation. Here, the animals don’t hide from the cold, they hide from the heat. Tonight they are celebrating their return to a cooler world.

Now is when the snakes come out. It makes sense; snakes eat frogs. The frogs are out because it’s cool and because the flies and the mosquitoes are out. It’s the glorious food chain rearing its ugly head.

The mosquitoes and the snakes I could do without, but the frogs are amazing. They are singing! Their music enthralls. It breaks the monotony of the heat. One must stop and listen. They are excited. They are awake and alive and ready to go!

It’s a good reminder. I am in the last weeks of work before I go home again. I haven’t been home for a year and I am more than a little anxious. It is ever easier to sink into a routine; I wake up, I go to work, I relax and eat dinner, and then off to bed to do it all again. I keep forgetting that I am in Africa. I may never come back after this journey. I should live every moment as if it were a Kodak moment.

But I keep forgetting. It takes the frogs to rouse me from my slumber, even if for only a moment…
MJR

Mommy I Have To Poop

Zachary comes to me and says he wants to ‘whisper’ in my ear. I know what is coming. “Mommy, I have to poop”, he says.

I am proud, he can do it on his own…at home. But here at Togala’s restaurant in Sadiola village, things are a little different and he wants help.



We are led, by the young woman with the key, outside then around the building to a fence in the back. It’s actually a circle of 5 foot high fence pieces; some bamboo, some just tarps and others cardboard. They are secured with a bike cable and lock. I am not sure what to expect on the inside.

I am handed a plastic tea kettle of water (Zachary wants to know why we will have tea in the bathroom). And we are left alone. I open the gate to the scattering of lizards.

Inside is a circular pad of concrete that sloops upward to the center where there is a single hole about 10 inches in diameter. Zachary is almost on his knees ready to peer in when I scoop him up and explain the plan. He is curious but unphased by the whole thing and enjoys being held up to do his business here.

I love that about my son, about bringing him here. He has no expectations and is so flexible when it comes to new things (except maybe for vegetables!).

What I enjoy is the view when I stand to assist Zachary. I can see over the fence. The sights and sounds of Sadiola village are my wallpaper. As I turn, I see the restaurant, a few donkey, two men walking past, the back of one of the stores on the main road, and a number of other structures like the one we are in now. I can hear conversation, music from a boom box, and passing cars.

I wash him up and we head back to enjoy the rest of our wonderful meal.

It’s no outhouse in the Adirondacks, or ‘groover’ on the Canyon, but it definitely has its own ambiance.
CSN

The Pink Palace

May 17, 2006

Sunday was our 8th wedding anniversary. It’s true we don’t have many options here for places or ways to celebrate. Nonetheless, we had a memorable evening at the Pink Palace!

The Palace is an anomaly. The only holiday lights in Sadiola mark this bar on the dark main road through town; a mud building painted light pink with cement floors and murals.

As we arrived in her establishment, Miriam was summoned from the back. (Is it because we stood out?) She greeted us warmly and we all managed to communicate with a laughable combination of French and English. We take our cocktails to the back courtyard to sit and drink up the light of the full moon.

The Pink Palace is one of many capitalistic ventures of this entrepreneurial, Amazon of a Malian woman. (She stands 6 feet tall with another couple inches added by her ever-present high heels). This lady seems to have quite a head for business. Along with this and one other bar I know of, Miriam imports clothing and fabric from Senegal. That is how I met her first. Miriam caters to the ex-pats, as well as to the locals.

She is also a Madam. She hosts a bevy of lovely ladies in both establishments. These women solicit business at the front and then stroll with the gents through the back courtyard into the rooms that lurk in the dark behind.

On this Saturday at 8pm, business was slow so Mark and I watched the waiting ladies go to and fro; out for a smoke, or just to chat with each other. They were dressed to the nines; a surreal contradiction in spandex and stilettos to the mud walls and dirt floor. They could have been walking along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

Though there are no menus, no kitchen to speak of, and no running water, you can also have a meal at The Palace. We were companionably offered “un peu manger?” by a couple of the young men who seem to work there. We declined but were indeed curious. The two men sat and shared a large bowl using their hands to enthusiastically scoop up the evening meal. Talk about family style. It sure looked tasty.

Later, lots of folks came in to eat. One woman cooks everything (while Miriam supervises). Each new order requires her to shake the two tiny charcoal stoves, keeping the flame going. She turns skewers over one, and makes a large plate of vegetables on the other. Only after one order is complete, can another one be started. Nice pace.

We were noticed, but never made to feel uncomfortable. We were well attended to. We had entertainment from the surroundings, good conversation, a full moon, and cheap cocktails. What more could we want for our anniversary in Mali? I wonder where we’ll be on the next one!



CSN